


There's Nothing Worse Than Feeling Like A Ghost

by purplebass



Category: The Last Hours Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:01:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27207793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplebass/pseuds/purplebass
Summary: Lucie wants to revive Jesse so she goes to the cemetery to retrieve what she needs to perform necromancy. But things don't go as she planned. Light angst.
Relationships: Jesse Blackthorn & Lucie Herondale, Jesse Blackthorn/Lucie Herondale
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12
Collections: Blackdale





	There's Nothing Worse Than Feeling Like A Ghost

Lucie always liked to sneak out during the night. While they were in Herondale Manor in Idris, she often went out of her bedroom window to go on little adventures, unbeknownst to her family who had never found out about her little escapades. Lucie’s parents probably thought she stayed in her room to write or to read after her training. Little did they know that she probably left the Institute more than James, who was usually the one who got caught and scolded.

Lucie felt a bit guilty that she left her house without telling anyone, but how could she find more material to use for her writing if she didn’t see the world?

Sure, she and Cordelia, along with the Merry Thieves, went out a lot. But that didn’t mean that she could do what she pleased, because she would still be under the watchful eyes of her friends. Lucie wasn’t secretive, she liked to be upfront and honest about her thoughts, but what she was about to do felt like something she didn’t want to share with the others, something personal. And illegal, maybe.

_Midnight._ The old woman asked her to come to the Cross Bones Graveyard around that time, and Lucie was obeying.

Naturally, she used a rune to camouflage herself in the disturbing and stormy London night. There were no mundanes around the block, perhaps they decided to take shelter in their homes or somewhere else, because it was raining.

Lucie didn’t want to grab an umbrella, instead she wore a cloak she hoped would protect her from the heavy storm that was raging above her head.

She laughed at herself, and found it funny that the night she was able to contact somebody who could help her with her current problem, was also the first in a couple of weeks where the sky was giving its best to unload all of its watery anger all over town.

She clutched the stele in her pocket. _Yes, it’s still here_ , she thought as she approached the area.

She wasn’t afraid of the night, but still, she was alone. She wasn’t afraid. She was still in the suburbs, after all.

_Turn right, and then_ … She arrived.

Lucie sighed once she saw the stones in front of her. “It’s a cemetery, Luce,” she told herself as she walked towards the first graves. There was a path in front of her. According to what she knew, the person she was looking for was in one of the graveyards in the east area. She hoped she would find it despite the weather wasn’t letting her see what was in front of her clearly. She had already lighted her witchlight, but to no avail. Maybe because that place was plagued by death.

She tried to ignore the ghosts that came out of their graves and tried to scare her. She wasn’t easily scared, especially in a cemetery, but ghosts liked to be tricky, and she had to stay alert.

At some point, she found the grave she was looking for. “Molly,” she whispered, her voice barely audible in the rainy night. “Molly?”

“Who’s calling for me?” the ghost asked, and appeared out of her grave. There she was, Molly, or Old Molly. She was a powerful ghost. “What do you want, little girl?”

“I’m not a little girl,” Lucie protested, even if she was indeed quite short. “And I don’t answer to ghosts. Ghosts answer to me.”

The ghost of Old Molly made a sinister smile. “You’re quite bold, little girl. And my time is precious. Have you taken what I asked?”

Lucie retrieved a small bag from her shoulder and gave it to the woman. Inside, as the ghost would see, there were a lot of golden rings. The woman didn’t accept mundane money as payment. The only thing Molly wanted to do was to find her wedding ring, and leave the world of the living for good, but she didn’t have much luck so far.

“Are they enough?”

“Yes, little girl. Now what do you want?”

“I need these,” Lucie said, showing the ghost a piece of paper with some ingredients written on it. She would never reveal where she found it, but at least she had found it.

The ghost raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I see. Black magic, huh? Do you want to end up like me?”

“What? No! Don’t meddle in my affairs!”

“Calm down, calm down. I’m fetching what you asked,” she said, then she disappeared in her tomb.

Lucie folded her hands and waited. She wasn’t afraid of the dark, and not even of being among the dead at night. She was more scared that Molly would return and say that she didn’t have the ingredients she needed to perform necromancy. She sighed, and shook her head. “Don’t be negative, Lucie.”

Eventually, Molly came back. She wasn’t empty handed, at least. Lucie eyed the small bag she was carrying with awe. She still didn’t know how to process the ingredients, but it was a big step already if she got them, right? As Molly approached, Lucie anticipated the moment she could go back to the Institute to sleep. She had to go back before dawn, and she had to move. It was getting late.

She wasn’t paying attention to anything but the bag, and didn’t realize the demon until he hit her.

“What?” she asked to the void, since she was alone in the cemetery. She realized that Molly had disappeared as well, leaving no trace of the things she was waiting to get her hands on. Her hands fumbled for a blade, for anything, until she found two daggers in the pockets of her cloak. She unsheathed one and tried to stab the demon, but her aim wasn’t good. Perhaps she was out of practice, perhaps she was alone and anxious. She needed to tell someone, but what use was now to think these things? She got distracted, and the demon made her lose her balance. She fell on the humid grass. She willed herself to get up, to fight, but she couldn’t. She had been knocked out too hard, too fast, she couldn’t stand. She couldn’t… she lost consciousness.

Jesse found himself at the cemetery without knowing why he was there. He was surprised at first. The area was deserted, save for the ghosts of dead people roaming around like him.

What pulled him there? Who called him there?

Disoriented, he was about to leave when he noticed someone lying on the ground a few feet from him. Why hadn’t he noticed her?

“Lucie,” he said hurriedly, and run to her motionless body as the rain fell profusely over them. “Lucie, what happened?” he asked tentatively, but got no answer. He touched her neck. She was still breathing at least, but he noticed the slash on her arm. Someone had attacked her, but she probably fell. Maybe that was how it went. But the wound didn’t look too serious, and he tried to shake her body awake. Well, not shake. He caressed her cheek, and whispered her name several times until he saw her eyes slowly open.

“Am I dead?” she wondered, worried.

Jesse smiled instinctively. “Not at all,” he replied.

“Oh, what a relief!” she exclaimed, then she sat down abruptly and hugged him. “Wait, how…”

“I don’t know either, Lucie.”

She removed her hands from the back of his neck and winced. “My head hurts. But still, how it’s possible that I can touch you now?”

“What were you doing at the cemetery at this hour of the night?” he asked instead, and Lucie glared at him.

“That’s none of your business.”

“On the other hand, it is. I know who does their business here.”

“I may have a passion for cemeteries, ever thought about that?”

Jesse rolled his eyes. “Or maybe for ghosts,” he proposed.

Lucie frowned. “Sometimes I wish I couldn’t see ghosts,” she lamented with a snort. “Ghosts are nosy.”

“Living people are nosier, in my opinion. They have to eat, sleep… live. They’re high maintenance.”

She stood up, cleaning her clothes from the dirt, although it was no use since the rain had already soaked her. “But you crave their company.”

“So, do you, with the ghosts.”

“I want the ghosts to go away!” she exclaimed, too loudly for the hour.

She realized her mistake too late. One moment Jesse stood in front of her, the next he wasn’t anymore. She remembered that the ghosts listened to her. They didn’t just obey when she called them, they also went away if she didn’t need them anymore, and that was what Jesse did. He disappeared because she expressed the desire to make him leave. She felt lonelier than she did before she went there, and out of her ingredients too. Molly hadn’t reappeared after the demon came, which meant she couldn’t do anything yet concerning the spell. She sighed, her heart full of regret for sending Jesse away and for losing precious jewels to get nothing in return. She gave one last look at the tomb and then turned around to leave the cemetery. While she walked back to the Institute, she also conjured Jesse to appear again, but he never did.


End file.
